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Friday, May 21, 2010

Don't Be A Shlumpy Underachiever

Yeah, so I went to a conference last weekend. I presented. It was pretty good, but I had to condense 2 hours of stuff into 50 minutes. I didn't get to tell as many jokes or go off on as many tangents. I did keep the picture of Legolas. *swoon*

But this is not a post about THAT.

No. This is about rising above the shlumpy underachiever. Dan Wells (I Am Not A Serial Killer -- go read it, stat) gave a presentation on story structure. I've heard it before, so I just sat back and relaxed.

And you know what? He's pretty funny too! One of the things he said was "shlumpy underachiever."

I LOL'ed. (The poor people next to me.)

So I'm here today to tell you how to avoid becoming a shlumpy underachiever. Some pointers:

1. Take showers. This will eliminate your physical shlumpiness, thus giving the persona of non-shlumpy. Hey, at least pretend, right?

2. Recognize that you have the Force. This will allow you to become Neo ("I am the One.") or Luke ("Use the Force, Luke!") but in your own special way. You might need to pen a motto for yourself. Mine? "Hey, at least I didn't kill anyone."

3. Share your awesome. This will help you realize that there are a lot of other people out there trying to be less shlumpy too. (I'm dishing on why I write YA here. And I'm one of the prizes in a pretty cool contest thingy here. No, I won't come home with you, but we can Skype...)

What are you doing to avoid becoming a shlumpy underachiever? What could you do better? Me? You expect me to confess? Well, all right. I seriously need to get on the treadmill or I'm going to d-i-e when tennis starts in oh, two weeks. Yikes.

Um, exercise, what's that? Seriously though, I need to learn how to become organised so I can manage to do everything all in the course of 1 day... but, keeping extremely busy does help with avoiding the "shlumpy underachiever", I have no time to excel at underachieving at the moment.

Yesterday I exercised and I wrote my hubby a love note. I'm afraid I let writing turn me into a shlumpy underachiever with my personal relationships. This is not a new epiphany, but yesterday I took steps to perk things up.

Great post as always! If I pull together some kind of Amazing Blogosphere scavenger type game, would you be willing to participate? You guys have my imagination going now.

I do feel schlumpy if I don't exercise and I didn't have time to the first three days this week. Will hit the treadmill and shower. No schlumpiness for me today!I also feel less schlumpy when I have a productive day and check lots of items off my list.read Elana's blog. Check. See I feel better already!

My 6-year-old's tennis starts next week and I'll be watching him - does that count as exercise by proxy? Wait, I did shower! Maybe I'm just a plain underachiever rather than a shlumpy one! Happy Friday! :)

This week, I subbed gym four times, doing the students' warm ups (well, not the pushups), so that kept me from being an underachiever. But if you look at the attire I'm walking around in (yoga pants or sweats), that's pretty shlumpy. My life is a dichotomy.

Take Showers is great advice (probably why it's no. 1). For me? I'm about to scratch out a daily schedule (incl. my writing time), since I'm finishing up my day job and transitioning into summer - aka. no routine. So, your post came at a perfect time!

Ooo, I guess this means I should go change out of my pajamas. (But hey--it's only 9:20 here!) At least I went shopping and have clothes that fit now. My two sizes too baggy jeans were looking pretty darn schlumpy. ;)

Ooo, I guess this means I should go change out of my pajamas. (But hey--it's only 9:20 here!) At least I went shopping and have clothes that fit now. My two sizes too baggy jeans were looking pretty darn schlumpy. ;)

Since I'm a-learnin m'self how to jog, I actually got outside and DID my jog on all the days that I didn't feel like it. And I was TOTALLY gonna go Off Diet and Off Jogging for today - and now I can't, on account of the GUILT from this POST. (lol) SO. TIMELY. IT. HURTS. Thanks!

I showered! Wait, I do that daily anyway. I finished I Am Not a Serial Killer yesterday. Yes! I worked on the next chapter in my book! And I studied Elana's great wisdom on query letter writing. Stupid second paragraph! Why are you such a huge mountain?

Honestly, at this point in my life, it feels like all I can do is shower. *sigh* Notice how sometimes it's easier to get down to work when you have too little time instead of too much? But my time's running out, I only have... *mental math hurts, uses fingers and toes* three ish months of absolute nothing-to-do-ness left!But I'm TRYING to not be a shlumpy underachiever! I set my alarm clock EVERY DAY even though I technically have no reason to get up before noon. :)

Balance balls are great for stretching out cramped, tight muscles and working your core, but not terribly aerobic.Tried a bicycle but there are too many off-leash dogs lurking around my neighborhood. Considering one of those indoor pedal exercisers.Weren't there once machines that worked your muscles while you slept? ;-)

Hooray for non-shlumpy, encouraging posts like this one. Thanks for the "at least I didn't kill anyone" motto. :) Some days, I don't rise much above that, but I try to be kind and keep writing, hoping revisions will get less and less shlumpy!

I always feel like shlumpy underachiever when I see what needs to be done but am too lazy to do it and just think 'i'll get to it'. There are so many things that I could do to up my game and I haven't even tackled half of them. Shlumpy am I.

I get my hair done at a salon to keep up the polished look (or sort of one anyway:) It makes me feel more presentable. And I push myself to meet certain goals. Most of the time. lolHave a great weekend,Karen

Hi! Thanks for the follow and the comment on my blog! I'm such a schlumpy underachiever today. But I DID shower, and I am going to get my hair cut tomorrow (it's down to my low back, I have about 4" of split ends... oy.) And I marked a scene I need to cut in my manuscript. Happy happy :)

Thanks for stopping by Ink Spells! Yay for another YA SF writer! I'm looking forward to that Query Tracker contest, so I'll stop being a shlumper and get on that.

Most of the time I'm not really a shlumpy underachiever, but somehow I've convinced myself that I am. Sheesh. I definitely need a motto: perhaps "Don't be a schmuck" or even better "Schlumpy is as schlumpy does." Okay, that was lame.

I seriously have to read his book because I like him so much. What can I do? Hmmm...clean more? Does it have to be writing related? I generally have no problem obsessing over my writing related goals. It's the non-writing goals that seem to fall by the way-side.

I went and showered right after I read this, which was this morning but my computer went bonkers and Im just now able to comment. I'm joining ANOTHER group...how many can there be haha, to help me meet my deadlines. Thats my newest non schlumpy agenda :)

I see you just signed into my blog as follower. And I'm so glad you did so I could meet you.

I love what you've shared here. What I really want is a treadmill, and almost bought one a few weeks ago used from some lady on Craigs List. Then my children needed some financial help. But maybe now I can get one.

I love all your pointers and am copying them out for reference!! And I've bookmarked you so I can come back later and browse your blog and website. Cheers!!

A shlumpy underachiever? Perish the thought! I am showered (twice-showered if you could the glass of water my cat spilled all over me a little while ago). And I will even shower again tomorrow. Now about the rest of those things...

Haha. :) Thanks for the laughs. I'm so going to use the word "shlumpy" from now on. It's hard to feel shlumpy when I'm over-working in the real world and feel like I'm crazy busy every day... but I'm right there with you, I'm shlumpy when it comes to exercise. I really gotta work on that.

Shower, ya, okay, I get that.Put on something nice, pack up the writing supplies and "go to work." That worked for me this week. Also, I signed up for a 35 mile bike tour in early June, so am motivated to get my biking butt in shape. Enjoy tennis!

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